What everyone need to Know about Islamic Republic of Iran.
An Eye-opening spiritual journey to Iran. Paradise on the earth with Peace and Tranquility
Many look at Iran through the prism of Islamic Republic’s adversarial relationship with USA and Zionist Israel
And many warned me about my travel to Iran due to the demonstrations like they did in my 2006 spiritual journey to Karbala, Iraq due to the bombing by ISIS of Imam Hassan Askari’s shrine in Samarra.
I begin with a question. Why Wouldn’t I travel to Iran? Perhaps it’s better to start with this question.
Iran is a country in the Middle East bordering the Caspian Sea to Indian Ocean with Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Russia in the north, Afghanistan and Pakistan on the east, and south with Persian gulf (Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait & Oman)
Iran is divided into five regions with 31 province (Ostan) each governed by Governor- General. Iran is a four-season country; it is really beautiful.
North of is cold and covered by evergreen forests (Caspian sea), south is bounded by Persian gulf, with hot and humid with palm forest.
Iran is a very normal country with lots of tourist attraction, however the mainstream media has portrayed Iran in a very negative way due to the Zionist political agenda.
Iran is the second-largest nation (by land size) in the Middle East. As you might imagine, it is a nation of diverse ethnicity which are often negatively portrayed by the media.
Iran has unique ancient historical sites with one of the world’s oldest civilization dating back to early bronze age (7,000 BC). Iran is the center of civilization with over 24 UNESCO World Heritage sites.
Iran has incredible architecture with gardens, pavilions, majestic palaces to very rich museums with over millions of manuscripts, 300,000 objects. Iran ranks has one of the world’s most prestigious museums and monuments.
Iran is a country with a dazzling natural attractions from mountains, lakes, caves, forests and beaches in the south on the islands of Qeshm, Kish and Hormoz.
When visiting Iran’s nature museum, it is a home to 519 bird species, 172 mammal species, 199 reptile species, 20 species of amphibians 173 species of fish and 9,000 distinctive plant species.
The existence of various ethnic groups in Iran, alongside the rich culture has made Iranian cuisine the best with delicious desert such as Halva, Sohan (Qom’s souvenir), Faloodeh, and Shole Zard a Saffron.
Iran has one of the lowest cost of tourism and most affordable tourist destination according to World Economic Forum (WEF). Iran Price competitiveness rating is 6.6, first in the world.
Iran ranks first in the hospitality, if anything, the Iranians are accused of excessive hospitality. Iran also offers best physicians with in-expensive plastic surgery and dental services.
I met a young Iraqi barber - Farad from Newcastle (UK) who had just completed his dental work which would have costed him over two thousand pounds in UK, was done as a vacation trip under one thousand pound.
The other thing we notice was many young women had bandage on their nose, inquiring with our guide Faramaz and Ihsan, they said it is plastic surgery. Oh My God (OMG) so many.
Consulting the professor google Iran has 7 times more than the US – over 150,000 surgery in a year. it's enough to make Iran the capital of nose job in the world.
More than 90% success rate shows that Iranian surgeons are super professional in this field because of high number of surgeries.
The Persian civilization first emerged around 550 B.C, over one thousand years before the birth of Islam, and two centuries before Alexander the Great who had developed a taste for bloodthirsty globetrotting.
At its pinnacle, the Persian Empire spanned from north Africa all the way to Central Asia and northern India – the largest ancient empire world had ever seen.
Iran is also the country of the greatest poets like Ferdowsi (940), Nizami (1141) Rumi (1207), Saadi (1210) and Hafez (1315).
You will find the mausoleums and books everywhere while our guides were fluent in the poetry of these poets and occasionally, they would recite and translate to us.
A depicted in 2012 academy award film Argo, Americans are only familiar with Iran history after the 1979 Islamic revolution, and a failed covert CIA operation Eagle Claw to rescue 52 embassy staff.
Farida and I were very fearful of the demonstrations; however, the media has done a fantastic job of portraying the fall of the Islamic Republic is imminent.
The Zionist media has branded Iran as – at best – a cauldron of religious fundamentalist and a terrorist state seeking a nuclear bomb to destroy Israel. A complete fake and false narrative.
However, we didn’t see any demonstrations, not a single one. If there were any demonstration, they are all are smokescreens for a deeper political agenda of regime change and economic coercion.
U.S. has blatantly disregarded the oppression faced by women under Middle Eastern governments like the Bedouin kingdom and other monarchies and dictators allied with the U.S.
We visited five cities from Mashhad to Esfahan and never saw any demonstrations nor any morality police on the roads, but saw street full of happy and joyful people.
We saw thousands of tourist shopping in the bazaars, malls and thousands of motorcycles, taxis and buses. Iran has bad traffic problem, but good public transport of railways and subways.
Iran is not a country where all women are obliged to cover themselves in black veils or “chadors” and have no voice.
On the contrary, ladies in Tehran are every bit as lively, sparking and bouncy as their counterparts in USA.
Bright color fashionable clothes are seen particularly outside of the Shrines and Iranian women’s hijab is pushed a little further backwards on the head. Iranian women are highly educated.
We saw many businesswomen owning hotels, guest houses, and restaurants. We saw women at all hotels working as receptionist, at museums, at airports check in and driving at high speed in Tehran.
Talking to few academicians’ women are highly educated with sixty percent enrollment at the universities. Iran boasts some of the best universities in the world.
American are great at judging from the outside. But what happens once we visit the country; we find that the stereotypes and fake news or narrative could not be further from the truth?
Instead of religious fundamentalists, secret police and a land of suspicion, I found some of the friendliest people I’ve ever met.
All I heard was "Mam'noon and khahesh Mikonam (thank you), Mersi (3 times thanks) and Kheilil Lotf Darid (that’s very kind.)
Iran is land of ancient civilization with beautiful minarets and shrines. Praying in these beautiful mosques during the prayer time with beautiful call for prayer (Azan) made me feel like being in the Medina and Mecca.
Since the beginning of recorded history, Iran has been one of the most important world civilizations with magnificent museums, world largest squares, palaces, bustling bazaars, and wonderful Ha’mam (bath houses.)
It’s only through seeing Iran through my own eyes that I know the stereotypes is not true. Traveling to Iran I saw some of the richest architecture and oldest culture anywhere in the world.
Such as the ancient city of Persepolis – seat of the Persian Empire, founded hundreds of years before Rome and many ancients’ sites in Mashhad, Qum, Kashan and Esfahan.
But perhaps the best surprise came to me was that many Iranian from taxi drivers to shop keepers were happy to talk or take pictures with us to either improve their English or welcome us.
I did ask many Iranians what is lifelike in Iran after over 40 years of sanctions. One said “I cannot tell you because American minds has been tainted by western Zionist media.
One said sanctions has made our economy resilient and we can produce anything from a paper clip to cars and send satellite to space, but it has cause great harm.
Some thanked us for visiting Iran and request that we portray or write a true positive picture of Iran and come back again.
The most interesting comments was “Zionist Israel is a malicious actor that has unfortunately manipulated the Americans into sharing its hostility toward Iran.”
Many Iranian praise President Obama for the JCPOA, but had a negative view on Trump and US foreign policy of unilaterally withdrawing from JCPOA and imposing sanctions which really hurts poor, downtrodden, and sick.
To be continue for next few weeks, a spiritual lifetime journey of mysticism, poetry, and history of the cradle of civilization- Iran.
Visit (Ziyarat) to the city of Mashhad known colloquially as the city of Imam (Mowla) Reza and Ferdowsi, after the Iranian poet who composed the Shahnameh (850 pages.)
The Persian book of kings or Shahnameh a narrative in verse, the longest poem by a single author, about 50000 couplets or lines with interesting story of Rustam and Sohrab.
